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CIF Championships: ‘Back to the Future’ for champ Monarchs
- Updated: May 30, 2026
2026 EAST COUNTY PREP SOFTBALL
CIF-San Diego Section Championships
East County Sports.com
Division 5 – Championship
Monte Vista 17, La Jolla 9
LA JOLLA — When officials of the San Diego Section reorganized the CIF championships in 2010 -11 to give the smaller and less competitive schools a chance to gain titles, several East County programs took advantage.
Titles by local schools in Division 5 have gone to Mountain Empire (2014), Mount Miguel (’18) and Liberty Charter (’18).
When readers of the CIFSDS Record Book take a look at the historical section of winners when it gets updated, the newest entry will be the Monte Vista Monarchs.
On Saturday (May 30), the Monarchs completed a 3-0 week by racing through the consolationn bracket to reach the title game, then whipping top-seed La Jolla, 17-9, at UC San Diego.
Monte Vista (19-13 overall) finsih with the school’s best record since last winning 20 games in 1992, when they shared the old Grossmont 3A League crown with Mount Miguel.
In the 1980s and ’90s, both schools were county powers, capturing numerous CIF championships in the division for large schools. The schools played each other for the 1989 title in a 10-inning thriller won by the Monarchs, 1-0.
However, the Monarchs did establish a school record with five postseason victories in a single season. — back in the day, a team only needed to win three times under a single-elimination format.
The Week that was
After falling to SD-Southwest in the winners bracket semifinals, Monte Vista won a challenger brcket elimination game against Mount Miguel, 10-8, to gain entry into the second week of the CIF tournsment.
Needing to twice defeat SD-Southwest to gain a berth in the title game, the Monarchs defeated the host Raiders, 21-12 and 15-13.
In Game 1, the 21 runs were two shy of the season-best of 23 set against San Ysidro. Freshman Reena Del Russo led the offense with three RBI on 2-for-5 hitting, including a triple.
Liliah Gorham added two hits and drove in a pair with a double. Olivia Mendham and Julieta Castillo Martinez also registered two RBI.
A day later in the bracket’s playback final again held in the City of San Diego neighborhood of Nestor on Wednesday (May 27), Monte Vista held a 14-5 lead before hanging on late.
Juliana Manley drove in four runs on 2-for-4 hitting/ A quartet of other Monarchs — sophomores Kianna Deleon and Giselle Sanchez, plus Del Rosario and Gorham — recorded two RBI each.
Another difference: although the hits were even at a dozen each, Monte Vista did not commit an error.
In the championship contest, Monarch rookie head coach Fili Tavarez went with the same lineup utilized towards the end of the season, when the third-seeded Monarchs closed by taking 8-of-10 ballgames after scoring on their first six trips to the plate.
Individually, Olivia Mendham bstted 2-for-4 and scored four times, while Liliah Gorham scored four runs. Both are juniors.
La Jolla (16-13) finishes at the D2 runner-up for the second straight year.
— Nick Pellegrino
